Description

This south-facing limestone wall has two bolted sport routes and a couple of abandoned projects. The limestone layers that make up the wall slope down from left to right at about a 30 degree angle making for an interesting look.

The wall has a number of small, diagonal roofs and is streaked with various colors including a fairly vivid light blue (hence the name, presumably).

Getting There

The Blue Wall is located on the north side of the canyon between the first and second bridges. When the second bridge can be seen ahead there is a large gully with a talus slope on the left (the second gully on the left after the first bridge). Slog up the talus to the top of the slope and turn left (west). The routes are on the right after a large roof with a prominent blue streak below and to the left of the roof.

Easy climbing with big holds for 50 feet. The next 25 feet is the crux which climbs vertical, less featured rock, requiring more thought and balance. Clip the last bolt from a hidden jug then scramble to the chains....[more]Browse More Classics in UT

A VW sized boulder came down the Blue Wall talus this winter and stopped smack dab on the Rock Canyon trail. The approach to Blue Wall no longer requires the ugly slog up the talus since Andy Knight (others?) made a really awesome trail up the gully, left (west) of the tallus. The start of the Blue Wall trail is about 30 yards down canyon from the VW sized boulder.

I'm pretty sure the boulder in the trail came down from the south side of the canyon (along with several more large boulders that now reside in the stream bed). If you look up on the west side of the buttress that contains The Hidden and The Balcony you can see broken vegetation and additional evidence of rock fall. There is also the remains of several broken trees in the stream bed.

Went for a hike this evening and had another look at the boulder. It is actually a little bigger than I thought. It is my height (5'10"), so not VW Bus size Tristan, but it is VW Beetle size (which is what I meant =) ).

A boulder that came down onto Rock Canyon trail between 1st and 2nd bridges, winter/early spring 2010.

When I saw the boulder the first time I had not hiked past the boulder and saw no damaged vegetation on the south side of the trail. Now it is obvious that what Perin said is true. This boulder actually barreled down the slope with the others, went through the creek bed, went several feet up onto the trail, then actually tumbled down the trail several feet before stopping on the trail. Amazing.

Here are the others in the creek about the same size (sorry, my point-n-shoot doesn't take that great of photos):

More boulders that came down and stopped in the stream bed -- Rock Canyon, 2010.